2021 Resurgent Finance Leader Research report (Photo : Board International)

2021 Resurgent Finance Leader Research report (Photo : Board International)

Moving from Generalist to strategist: Discover what over 600 finance leaders think about the Future of Finance through this survey results conducted on a global level.

There is a next generation of finance leaders who is emerging post pandemic.  These trail-blazing leaders are using the biggest asset of the digital age, data, to generate extraordinary impact using analytics, planning, intelligence and decision making.

The report poses a series of key questions on the changing role of finance leaders, their teams, and how organizations worldwide are enabling the finance function to exploit the biggest business asset of the digital age: Data.

The research findings reveal now is the time for finance leaders to back their own transformational capabilities and take on a more strategic and impactful role in the business. They know the office of finance could be potentially automated out of existence unless it makes the leap from a background support function to the strategic hub for vital data. Perhaps then, it’s no surprise that the large majority of finance leaders agree, it’s time to accelerate the change from being a scorekeeper to performance driver, and finance should be the natural home for all data.

Only one-third of finance leaders believe their current reporting can be ‘totally accurate’ when it comes to projecting performance and adapt forecasts in real-time to reflect changing market conditions, and they also believe how finance uses technology to influence business decision-making and drive strategy, needs a complete overhaul and a lot of improvement.

The research also shows that despite receiving the validation of their organizations’ leaders, who are ready to embrace the finance team as key players to support business goals, finance decision-makers believe transformation of finance needs to be reflected in wider finance team skills & culture development.

The Resurgent Finance Leader research shows there’s a huge opportunity for finance decision-makers who can enable the winning combination of transformative skills, culture, and technology across the Office of Finance to unlock the value of vital data insights and play a strategic role in shaping the digital enterprise. At the same time, it shows there are still gaps to fill when it comes to pulling all these vital elements together.

With data being the fuel for the acceleration of the digital enterprise, the highest transformative value from data will come from empowering finance leaders and teams to generate insights from data, to effectively enable organizations’ leadership to make game-changing business decisions in real-time.

The C-Suite demands acceleration of the digital enterprise, growth, and transformed business models as a number one strategic priority. They expect their finance leaders to play a crucial role in making this all happen. The Resurgent Finance Leader research from Board provides a view from the top into how Finance Leaders worldwide are making progress on these strategic priorities today with a view into tomorrow’s expectations.

Download the research results to get the detailed answers to all those questions on the future of Finance and discover if your company is on the right path.

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